Although the size, construction, and quality of homes vary across Europe, housing affordability remains a widespread challenge throughout the region.

In this graphic, Visual Capitalist’s Bruno Venditti visualizes the homeownership rate in select European countries in 2023, according to Statista.

Housing Supply

At the top of our ranking, Albania has a homeownership rate of 96% among adults.

It’s possible to buy a two-bedroom apartment with 100m² in the capital of the Balkan country, Tirana, for €287,000 ($315,000).

In contrast, only 42% of people own property in Switzerland. A similar-sized apartment in Zurich costs around CHF 1,095,000 ($1.28 million).

Country
Homeownership Rate (%)
🇦🇱 Albania
96
🇷🇴 Romania
96
🇸🇰 Slovakia
94
🇷🇸 Serbia
92
🇭🇷 Croatia
91
🇲🇪 Montenegro
91
🇭🇺 Hungary
91
🇱🇹 Lithuania
89
🇵🇱 Poland
87
🇧🇬 Bulgaria
86
🇲🇰 North Macedonia
86
🇱🇻 Latvia
83
🇪🇪 Estonia
81
🇳🇴 Norway
79
🇵🇹 Portugal
76
🇨🇿 Czechia
76
🇪🇸 Spain
75
🇸🇮 Slovenia
75
🇮🇹 Italy
75
🇲🇹 Malta
75
🇧🇪 Belgium
72
🇳🇱 Netherlands
70
🇬🇷 Greece
70
🇮🇪 Ireland
69
🇫🇮 Finland
69
🇪🇺 European Union (27)
69
🇨🇾 Cyprus
69
🇱🇺 Luxembourg
68
🇬🇧 United Kingdom
65
🇸🇪 Sweden
65
🇫🇷 France
63
🇩🇰 Denmark
60
🇹🇷 Turkey
57
🇦🇹 Austria
54
🇩🇪 Germany
48
🇨🇭 Switzerland
42

With growing populations in major cities, rising construction costs present a challenge for housing supply.

The rental market is another factor in the equation.

As reported by Statista, countries with more mature rental markets, such as France, Germany, the UK, and Switzerland, tend to have lower homeownership rates.

Over the past few years, the share of homeowners among the population of all 27 European countries has remained relatively stable. On average, EU countries have a homeownership rate of 69%.

To learn more about this topic, check out this graphic showing how the majority of Americans can no longer afford an average house.